38 THE BOOK OF REAL FAIRIES

" To think—" began Norman, and then he stopped,
for he found that here was something which he
had been doing every day and never knew how
it was done. "To think,53 he began again, "is
to have your soul make things go inside your head.
You see, it's this way : I am a soul and I live inside
this body. When I want to think I use the head, and
when I want to walk I make the feet go, and so on.
I, the Soul, always think right, but I can't always
make the head of my body understand it, and so my
body does wrong things. But Mother says the more
I make my body listen to the Soul—that's me—the
plainer the Soul will speak ; that means I can think
more clearly and do what's right."

This was a long, hard speech for Norman, and he
was very proud of himself when he was done, for
Klaade seemed to have understood him quite well and
said :

•' Then I take it that that body of yours is some-
thing like a coat. Can you take it off ? "

" Of course I can," cried Norman, " and I do every
night when I go to sleep. Then my body rests on the
bed and I am dressed in a thinner body and have a
fine time. I don't mean the body looks any thinner,"
he explained, " but it's made of stuff that isn't thick
and hard like this one. When we go to sleep, we
call that slipping out of the physical body."

The Gnome nodded.